New Books Network Podcast

Asian American Studies October 4, 2023

Warring Genealogies

Race, Kinship, and the Korean War

Joo Ok Kim

Hosted by Ann Choi

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“[W]hat is our relationship to the Korean War and to the affinities” of different institutions that produce knowledge about the Korean War? (130) In her book, Warring Genealogies: Race, Kinship …

Genocide Studies October 4, 2023

Norway in the Second World War

Politics, Society and Conflict

Ole Kristian Grimnes

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

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Covering political, military, economic and social history, Norway in the Second World War: Politics, Society and Conflict (Bloombury, 2020) is the most authoritative book on the subject in the English language …

Genocide Studies October 3, 2023

Under the Swastika in Nazi Germany

Kristin Semmens

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

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Under the Swastika in Nazi Germany (Bloomsbury, 2023) begins in flames in 1933 with Adolf Hitler taking power and ends in the ashes of total defeat in 1945. Kristin Semmens …

Women's History October 3, 2023

Yours, for Probably Always

Martha Gellhorn's Letters of Love and War 1930-1949

Janet Somerville

Hosted by Jane Scimeca

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Before email, when long distance telephone calls were difficult and expensive, people wrote letters, often several each day. Today, those letters provide an intimate and revealing look at the lives …

Genocide Studies October 1, 2023

Supreme Courts Under Nazi Occupation

Derk Venema

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Derk Venema's edited volume Supreme Courts Under Nazi Occupation (Amsterdam UP, 2022) is the first extensive treatment of leading judicial institutions under Nazi rule in WWII. It focusses on all democratic …

Russian and Eurasian Studies October 1, 2023

Moscow's Heavy Shadow

The Violent Collapse of the USSR

Isaac McKean Scarborough

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Moscow's Heavy Shadow: The Violent Collapse of the USSR (Cornell University Press, 2023) by Dr. Isaac Mckean Scarborough tells the story of the collapse of the USSR from the perspective …

European Politics September 29, 2023

Russia's War Against Ukraine

Gwendolyn Sasse

Hosted by Tim Jones

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Nineteen months since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the books are coming thick and fast. Fortunately, each tells a different and compelling story. Like other recent books, Gwendolyn Sasse’s …

CEU Press Podcast Series September 28, 2023

Perpetrators of Organized Violence

Series Spotlight

Waitman Wade Beorn, Weronika Grzebalska, and Iva Vukušić

Hosted by CEU Press

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Episode 4 of the CEU Press Podcast Series introduces one of the Press’s new series, entitled Perpetrators of Organized Violence: Eastern, Central and South-Eastern Europe. The series editors, Waitman Wade …

Library Science September 24, 2023

Archives of War

Technology, Emotion and History

Debra Ramsay

Hosted by Jen Hoyer

Archives of War: Technology, Emotion and History (Routledge, 2023) offers a comparative analysis of British Army Unit War Diaries in the two World Wars, to reveal the role played by previously unnoticed …

Japanese Studies September 24, 2023

Inglorious, Illegal Bastards

Japan's Self-Defense Force During the Cold War

Aaron Skabelund

Hosted by Ran Zwigenberg

In Inglorious, Illegal Bastards: Japan's Self-Defense Force During the Cold War (Cornell UP, 2022), Aaron Herald Skabelund examines how the Self-Defense Force (SDF)—the post–World War II Japanese military—and specifically the …

Sociology September 24, 2023

Good Soldiers Don't Rape

The Stories We Tell About Military Sexual Violence

Megan MacKenzie

Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Sexual violence is a significant problem within many Western militaries. Despite international attention to the issue and global #MeToo and #TimesUp movements highlighting the impact of sexual violence, rates of …

Jewish Studies September 22, 2023

A Nazi Camp Near Danzig

Perspectives on Shame and on the Holocaust from Stutthof

Ruth Schwertfeger

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

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Within the vast network of Nazi camps, Stutthof may be the least known beyond Poland. This book is the first scholarly publication in English to break the silence of Stutthof …

Genocide Studies September 21, 2023

Przemysłowa Concentration Camp

The Camp, the Children, the Trials

Katarzyna Person and Johannes-Dieter Steinert

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

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Katarzyna Person and Johannes-Dieter Steinert's book Przemysłowa Concentration Camp: The Camp, the Children, the Trials (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023) explores one of the most notorious aspects of the German system of oppression …

General History September 18, 2023

Age of Emergency

Living with Violence at the End of the British Empire

Erik Linstrum

Hosted by Ran Zwigenberg

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When uprisings against colonial rule broke out across the world after 1945, Britain responded with overwhelming and brutal force. Although this period has conventionally been dubbed "postwar," it was punctuated …

Military History September 17, 2023

Bismarck's War

The Franco-Prussian War and the Making of Modern Europe

Rachel Chrastil

Hosted by AJ Woodhams

Among the conflicts that convulsed Europe during the nineteenth century, none was more startling and consequential than the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871. Deliberately engineered by Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck …

Military History September 17, 2023

Unknown Conflicts of the Second World War

Forgotten Fronts

Chris Murray

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Chris Murray's book Unknown Conflicts of the Second World War: Forgotten Fronts (Routledge, 2019) is a collection of chapters dealing with various overlooked aspects of the Second World War. The aim is to …

General History September 16, 2023

An Introduction to the Irish Civil War

John O'Donovan

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

During the Irish Civil War, events of late 1922 and early 1923 together with waves of 'dishonourable' killings created poisoned relations between Republicans and 'Free Staters' which would last for …

Jewish Studies September 15, 2023

Under a Bloodred Sky

Avigdor Hameiri’s War Stories and Poetry

Avigdor Hameiri

Hosted by Ari Barbalat

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Under a Bloodred Sky: Avigdor Hameiri’s War Stories and Poetry (Academic Studies Press, 2023) represents an anthology of Avigdor Hameiri’s ten most compelling war stories and poetry. His war stories …

Military History September 14, 2023

To Besiege a City: Leningrad 1941-42

Prit Buttar

Hosted by Stephen Satkiewicz

The city of St. Petersburg held great significance to the Russian Empire when Peter the Great first built the city in 1703. It was intended to be Russia's "window to …

America and Beyond with Paul Starobin September 13, 2023

The Shadow War between America and Russia

A Discussion with George S. Beebe

George S. Beebe

Hosted by Paul Starobin

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Western analysts and media often assess the prospect that Moscow might use nuclear weapons as the war in Ukraine grinds on, possibly to a flailing Russia’s disadvantage. George Beebe, though …